Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Turkey's continuing emergence

The tensions with Israel due to the Gaza war and the Israeli attack on the flotilla of humanitarian aid ships represent a new element in the region: truly independent Muslim-majority states that will not allow themselves to be pushed around and insulted by Israel or Western powers, as most Arab states allow. . . .

Turkey’s relations with Israel today comprise only one aspect of its multi-faceted regional strategy, which also includes good relations and diplomatic activism with foes of Israel like Syria and Iran. The emergence of a stronger Turkey that is more directly engaged with all in the region is a positive development, and any one party that thinks it can win Turkey totally to its side is probably engaged in wishful thinking.

More than anything, I suspect, people in the Middle East - as opposed to the often corrupt regimes that govern them - have wanted to be allowed to conduct their own affairs without decisions being imposed upon them by Israel or stage-managed by the U.S. Turkey, at long last, seems to be achieving that. The US Congress, of course, sees that purely in terms of Turkey falling under the sway of "Islamic radicals" hell-bent on destroying Israel. In so doing, they drive away from the US a proud democratic state - and people - whose continued friendship could still do much for Obama's outreach to the Muslim world - not that the Israel lobby finds that of any real import.

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I've been a professor of ancient Near Eastern and modern Middle Eastern history at Central Michigan University since 1982. I was formally trained as an Assyriologist and Ancient Near East specialist [Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania], but since 1984, I have also been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in Islamic and "modern" Middle Eastern history.
My book, "A Short History of Iraq," will soon be published by OneWorld Publications. You can find most of my published opinion pieces at the "War in Context" site. My scholarly publications appear in various academic journals and edited volumes.